Sunday, February 12, 2012

The ES is gushing pride and joy after the Spartans' complete, defensive-minded domination of the Ohio State Buckeyes last night. The 10-point win in Columbus, ending the OSU 39-game home winning streak, was as convincing as it was dominating. The ES' favorite stat? Lookit ESPN's game flow: MSU took an 11-10 lead with 12:13 left in the first half, and never looked back, leading by as much as double-digits for most of the rest of the way...

Let's see the stats of the two PTPers coming into the game: Green (MSU) vs Sullinger (OSU):

The biggest difference? Sullinger with 5 more FT, 7 more OREBs, and 7 more TOs. Actually, Sullinger had a 0-10 Assist-to-TO ratio; Green's was 2-to-3. The ES say maybe an even performance, if not give it to Draymond Green because of his ability to run the team and not make mistakes. More impressively was the Spartan bigs:

Add it up for MSU, that's 14-30 shooting (47%) from the floor, 14 rebounds, 33 pts (or 57% of the team's 58), and a 4-to-6 assist to turnover ratio (0.67). OMG, the ES has a wide smile looking at Payne's coming out party, hitting on 6-of-6 (15 pts), 4 boards, 2 blocks, and pulling down 4 boards in just 20 minutes... NICE.

Ummm.... wow, Spartans dominating in the paint (read that, Sullinger?), off TOs, and off the bench. Interestingly, Michigan State played 8 players with 10 or more minutes, Ohio State with just 6.

Brennan from ESPN hit the nail on the head with his notes on the Spartan domination: "Michigan State didn't have to light it up to get this victory. When you defend this well, when you execute your defensive game plan this perfectly, when you thoroughly dominate one of the nation's elite teams in its own building, you don't have to put up points in bunches to get the job done. No team in the country this season has posted 40 minutes of defense this strong against a team this good. So, yeah, Tom Izzo loves this team. Can you blame him?"

Aahhhh, the satisfaction of a big victory on the road. Check out the Big Green, once again on top of the conference race....